Take a hot bath and you'll feel fine afterwards. Also if any areas are extremely sore then alternate hot/cold for a bit...like apply heat to the area for 5 minutes then cold/ice for 5 minutes and alternate like that for 20 minutes.

Drinking a protein shake always helps me. I drink one right after the jillian michaels dvds. My calves were sore the first week too from all the jumping jacks, etc but not anymore. Keep going- her dvds are awesome and you will see toned muscles in all the places that are sore.

If you can take NSAIDs, I find that ibuprofen sometimes helps. I also do a warm wrap on sore muscles and, crazy as it sounds, I have had luck with massaging my calves by using a rollin pin on them. Warmth helps me the most; even on a hot summer day I make sure to wear comfy sweatpants after a hard workout to keep the muscles from getting too cold to quickly and cramping.

The only thing I'd alter:
It's a measure of hydration + work + hydration + nutrition + hydration + rest + hydration.
All the hydration because most of us don't drink enough water...

Drink water BOTH before AND after your workout. (I do as little as possible durring...)

Workout regularly so your muscles get used to being worked.

Eat and drink well -- could even try to decrease intake of inflammatory foods but I'm not sure that matters.

Rest as hard as you workout.

And keep drinking!

Stretching is, of course, a must!
It will go the distance in preventing injury but, as a way to "decrease" soreness I'm not sure I buy it. Stretching, icing, salt baths, popping ibuprofen, and the rest might all be great things but, they only mitigate the soreness after you have it...

__________________Eat this today!(If you don't like that one, come back and click again...)My Calorie Intake Goal: Keep the tank full and feel good!Next physical challenge: Ride my bicycle from Seattle to SanFran! Burning desire: Stand at the high point of every State in the US -- one down (#4 on the list), 49 to go!